The political economy in the Portuguese parliamentary debates in the first half of the 19th century

Abstract

This article starts from the hypothesis that through the parliamentary debates of Portugal it is possible to understand the political dynamics and the economic solutions proposed for the solution of the economic problems in which the country was in the first half of the nineteenth century. This article aims to clarify how parliamentarians based their proposals on ideas from the Political Economy, used as an argument from authority to endorse various proposals for reorganization of the country. Although these allusions are not always based on theoretical arguments or on the careful use of concepts of economic science, this rhetorical tool strengthens the argument of these political actors. Parliamentary debates were used as a source to show the multiplicity of discourses available on political economy, the role it played in the speech and discourse of economic recovery in Portugal, as well as the policies and proposals of these discourses. In this way, parliamentary discourses are used as a privileged source for the apprehension of economic thought in Portugal, its relations with the Political Economy and with the economic theories in vogue, besides pointing to its applicability in the practical reality of the Portuguese Empire.